USC, UCLA at it again to decide L.A.’s No. 1 team

Southern California tight end Xavier Grimble, left, pulls in a pass in front of Colorado linebacker Derrick Webb in the first quarter of an NCAA college football game in Boulder, Colo., Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013.
David Zalubowski — Associated Press

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Acknowledging how history, emotions and what passes as sheer boastfulness play into it, the real bowl game for UCLA’s and USC’s football teams will come when the two meet again Saturday night.

Call it the Coach O Bowl for USC, if you like.

Or it’s the Oh-No-You-Don’t Bowl for UCLA.

This is hardly a consolation prize for the city rivals, who somehow arrived at basically the same place despite very different starting points. It’s just that, once the 83rd meeting kicks off at the Coliseum at 5 p.m. before a national TV audience, the only real concern after it plays out is purely related to post-season product placement.

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Could USC, standing erect at 9-3 having won six of its last seven under interim head coach and permanent replacement favorite Ed Orgeron, actually end up in San Antonio or El Paso for the holidays when all looked pretty null and void just two months ago?

And would winning this game solidify Orgeron’s future with the program as its leader going forward?

Will UCLA, staggering in with an 8-3 record after lofty preseason expectations and New Year’s Day dreams, only to squander an opportunity to clinch their third Pac-12 South title in a row, be content with the reality of a loathing journey to Las Vegas as a consolation prize?

And if coach Jim Mora was able to engineer a victory here, would it ease any disappointment?

Why wait for a bowl game? Here, they can just slug it out in front of all their own fans and alums, then wait for any kind of extraneous, random road trip that will be bestowed upon them.

“I know our guys will be fired up for this game — it’s game eight of our new season,” Orgeron said Sunday evening. “Obviously, it’s a rivalry game, the last regular-season game, but we won’t plan any different in practice or preparations.”

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Mora said after Saturday’s 38-33 home loss to Arizona State that he senses “there’s something growing around here that’s going to be special. It’s not there yet. But it’s growing. I’m proud of them. . . . I’m excited about the future of this program.”

If “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” is the hot new thing in the theaters today, maybe UCLA is the team that should be the hungriest, as USC continues to catch fire.

A year ago, when USC and UCLA met up at the Rose Bowl in the season ender, the winner claimed the right to the Pac-12 South and conference championship game.

UCLA did just that with a 38-28 thumping that effectively ended with Bruins defensive end Anthony Barr sacking Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley so furiously that Barkley was unable to play again until his NFL career started months later.

“That left a terrible taste in our mouth,” said Orgeron, who has seen the Trojans win eight of the 10 games he’s been apart of previously as an assistant coach. “We let down the Trojan family. We’re not going to dwell on it, but I know our guys remember that awful feeling.

“We won’t say much about it this week. We don’t have to. What’s done is done. This is all about the USC Trojans.”

The Bruins’ loss to Arizona State on Saturday night extinguished any chance of either them or the Trojans from having that opportunity. It also dropped UCLA from No. 14 to No. 22 in the Bowl Championship Series standings — one spot ahead of No. 23 USC. That’s also where the Bruins and Trojans are situated in the Associated Press writers’ poll and the USA Today coaches’ poll.

The Trojans, however, have been listed as a 3 1/2 point favorite Saturday by many oddsmakers, a result of having the home game.

Left to their own devices, the Bruins and Trojans can’t do much better than finish fourth in the league, record-wise.

But as any wise guy will tell you, they’ll throw all the records out of the Coliseum press box window when the city rivals each suit up in their dark home jerseys to make this one special.

USC leads the all-time series with 46 wins against 29 losses and seven ties. Two of the Trojans’ wins were vacated because of NCAA sanctions.

The largest margin of victory for any one team in the series was 50-0 — USC’s triumph the last time the game was played at the Coliseum.

UCLA won a year ago, but it hasn’t defeated USC at the Coliseum since 1997.

Orgeron got more than a standing ovation the last time he was at the Coliseum, as fans swarmed the field following an improbable victory over then No. 5 ranked Stanford. He has been riding a wave of support since he replaced Lane Kiffin as the head coach after a loss at Arizona State on Sept. 28.

A repeat performance Saturday could result in Orgeron carried through the Coliseum tunnel and into the nearby public Olympic pool.

“This game is what you play for at USC,” said Trojans starting quarterback Cody Kessler after Saturday’s win at Colorado. “This week cannot be understated.”